Louvre

The Louvre is a large art museum in Paris, France, established in 1793. The world's largest art museum, it originated as a castle that was built in 1202, which was later razed on the orders of King Francis I of France and converted into a royal palace in 1546. Almost every subsequent monarch added to the palace, and King Louis XIV of France lived at the Louvre Palace before departing for the Palace of Versailles in 1678. On 10 August 1793, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly opened the Louvre to the public as an art museum, housing 537 paintings that had been confiscated from the nobility and clergy. The collection was increased under Napoleon I, who renamed the Louvre as the Musee Napoleon, but the foreign powers occupying Paris following his defeat in 1814 returned many of the stolen works to their home countries. During the Second French Empire, the museum gained 20,000 pieces, and holdings grew steadily through donations and bequests. In 2017, the museum had 8,100,000 visitors.